Which to use
“marry” and “may” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,637
- “marry” frequency rank
- #110
- “may” frequency rank
- 3747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marry | may |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. | To be strong; to have power (over). |
Where the eye mixes marry and may
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses marry with may
A purely visual mix-up. marry (/ˈmæɹ.ɪ/) and may (/meɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marry is recorded at frequency rank #3,637, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈmæɹ.ɪ/. may is at rank #110, tagged as averb, pronounced /meɪ/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 3747, this pair ranks #521,124 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marry vs may
Shared letters: amy. Private to "marry": r. Private to "may": -.
"marry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "may" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marry ← amrry · marryy · maryr · mmarry · mrary
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "marry" and "may" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "marry" or "may" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "may" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #521,124 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marry" and "may" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marry vs myrrh". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #521,124 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.